EAST LANSING – Time is winding down in Michigan State basketball’s season, but the minutes are ramping up for Tom Izzo’s core four.
It’s not only point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. logging more and more minutes since a season-ending injury to backup Divine Ugochukwu. Bigs Coen Carr, Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper all have seen an uptick in court time over the past month as the eighth-ranked Spartans head toward the 2026 Big Ten tournament in Chicago.
“Like coach said [Monday], ‘We’ll sleep in April,’” Cooper said after practice Tuesday, March 10. “We’re gonna work, and we’ll sleep in April and we can be tired in April. Right now, I think we all feel pretty good.”
How this will play out in the postseason remains to be determined. If the Spartans are to capture their first Big Ten tourney title since 2019, they will need to win three games in three days starting Friday at United Center. And even if MSU just gets to Sunday’s championship game, it will be a quick turn and back on the road to whatever NCAA tournament site Izzo and Co. will learn of on Sunday night.
And there, they’ll have to win two games in three days to advance to the second weekend. Do that, and they’ll need to do it again in Chicago, Houston, San Jose or Washington to reach Indianapolis, and the program’s first Final Four since 2019.
“We want to play till Sunday and try to do something special,” said Fears, who was named a third-team All-American by Sporting News on Wednesday after earning first-team All-Big Ten recognition Tuesday.
While Fears has been a workhorse all season, the importance for Izzo maximizing usage of his third-year sophomore point guard (and Bob Cousy Award finalist) grew when Ugochukwu suffered a season-ending broken foot in a Feb. 4 loss at Minnesota. Since then, Fears has gone from playing 31 minutes in MSU’s first 22 games to 35.1 a game over the past eight. His scoring has skyrocketed from 14.9 points to 17.9 points, as have his assists – 8.8 to 9.6 – in that recent stretch.
For Fears’ other three co-captains, their minutes started to surge with the Spartans’ overtime victory at Rutgers on Jan. 27.
In the first 20 games, Carr averaged 27.4 minutes. Over MSU’s last 11 games, that has soared to 32.3 minutes per, including logging 30-plus in nine of those. His scoring (11.4 points in the first 20 games, 11.9 in the past 11) and rebounding (5.1 to 5.7) both have risen, while Carr also has been asked to do more defensively this season. He also has improved at the free-throw line down the stretch, going from 57.5% over the first 20 games to 74.4% in his past 11.
Some of Carr’s bump in minutes is because one of his backups, freshman Jordan Scott, has moved into the starting lineup at shooting guard. Scott, who averaged 16.5 minutes in his first 20 college games, got 27.5 minutes per over MSU’s final 11 contests. That includes 27.9 per game in nine games since joining the starting group at Minnesota.
Both senior bigs also have seen a slight increase in minutes the past 11 games.
Kohler is averaging 29 minutes in that span, up from 27.1 in the first 20 games. It includes logging at least 30 minutes five times. The 6-10 forward averaged 13.2 points and 9.6 points over the first 20 games before a midseason swoon that has him at 12.2 points and 8.3 rebounds over the past 11 games. However, he closed the regular season with 21 points and 13 rebounds in 32 minutes against Rutgers and 15 points and seven boards in 29 minutes against Michigan.
“It would be unfair to say I don’t think about it and it doesn’t have a factor, but it does,” said Kohler, who earned All-Big Ten honorable mention Tuesday. “The biggest thing for me is trying to make sure it doesn’t stay in my head that I’m gonna be tired. Because when you hear it, it subconsciously stays in your head. But if you keep the attitude and the mindset of, ‘Hey, it’s just one game at a time, one game at a time; we don’t have practice, we just have walk-throughs,’ then that helps us save energy and I double down on recovery.
“Then when we play, it just feels like the AAU days. And I loved the AAU days, when you’d just go play.”
Cooper is averaging 10.6 points and seven rebounds in 27.9 per game over his past 11 games, playing at least 30 minutes in four of those. That is down slightly from the 10.7 points and 7.2 boards the 6-11 center posted in 25.6 minutes over the first 20 games. But in MSU’s past five games, Cooper also scored a career-high 20 points with 11 rebounds in 34 minutes against Ohio State and posted 19 points and six boards in 29 minutes against U-M on Sunday.
“I feel pretty good,” Cooper said. “Just knowing that it’s your last go-round, that kind gives you that extra little boost. Maybe last year, you might take something for granted … and we got next year. But now, there’s no room for being tired.”
With the core continuity has come improved offensive consistency for the Spartans.
In the first few weeks of 2026, MSU’s adjusted offensive rating, per KenPom, dipped into the 50s (out of 365 teams). That included a fall to 66th on Jan. 12 before entering the Feb. 4 game at Minnesota ranked 48th. Since then, with Izzo increasing his veterans’ minutes, the Spartans’ efficiency numbers on offense have improved; they are 27th while maintaining their strong defensive presence to rank eighth. MSU averaged 2.2 points more per game over its final 11 regular-season games (78.2) than it did in the first seven of 2026 (76.0).
“I think when us four are in, we just know each other so well,” Kohler said. “We’ve played with each other for so long, and I think last year’s offense had a lot to do with that. Going into this year, us four are in sync and we know how it’s supposed to be done, we know what we should do, and we know who’s game is elevated.”
Scott’s move into the starting lineup also coincided with Izzo shrinking his backup group to, essentially, guard Kur Teng and forward Cam Ward. Point guard Denham Wojcik’s role is minor in minutes but major in impact, as he gives Fears a brief break during games. Forward Jesse McCulloch and guard Trey Fort, meanwhile, get spot duty based on matchups.
That leaves the bulk of the time for the starters.
“They’re excited. Everybody wants to play 41 minutes out of 40 minutes. They’re as happy as 10 men,” Izzo said of his primary rotation. “But I think it’s the one difference between last year’s team and this year’s team. If you look at our defensive numbers, they’re about the same as last year. If you look at our offensive numbers, they’re a little better than last year. If you look at our depth numbers and our bench numbers and our strength in numbers, it’s not as good.”
Yet it also comes back to what Fears, Carr, Kohler and Cooper provide for MSU to have a chance to win championships this month.
“At tournament time, we know what Izzo’s expectations are, and we know that it’s a team effort and we have to get everyone involved,” Kohler said. “And now more than ever, we need people coming off the bench to be aggressive and make shots and contribute to the team. Because it’s gotta be everyone – us four aren’t gonna be enough.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball starters unfazed by increased minutes